A LAND agent has by-passed local councillors by taking its application for 315 new homes and a mini shopping centre in Wellington to a Government inspector.

Gladman Developments has appealed to the Planning Inspectorate against a ‘non-determination’ by Somerset Council after it submitted an application in early October last year to build in Rockwell Green.

A six-day public inquiry will open on March 11 next year for Government inspector Peter Major to hear arguments for and against the plans before reaching a decision.

Gladman, which has been branded predatory by a number of authorities, wants permission to develop fields north of Exeter Road, opposite the 223-homes Monument View development for which it controversially won approval in 2018.

The council had set itself a target of making a decision on the new application by mid-January this year but has not done so.

The sort of mini-shopping centre envisaged by Gladman in proposals for housing development in Rockwell Green.
A computer generated image of how a mini-shopping centre could look if Gladman wins permission for a new housing development in Rockwell Green. (Gladman Developments)

Gladman said it had agreed a number of extensions of time for the council to determine the application up to to May 23, but a decision was still not taken and no indication was given by officers on whether they would support the application or not.

Now, Gladman has exercised its right to take the matter to appeal because no decision has been made, meaning Mr Major will determine it instead of councillors sitting on a local planning committee.

The company said it would enter ‘constructive dialogue’ with the council over a legal agreement which would require 25 per cent, up to 79, of the new properties to be ‘affordable homes’, 10 per cent of which would be wheelchair user dwellings.

It would also agree financial contributions per new dwelling to be put toward local education provision and expanding GP surgery capacity.

The agreement would also require ‘on-site informal open space, allotments, and equipped play space’.

Town councillors have recommended the application should be refused because it was outside the development boundary for Wellington and Rockwell Green and would put additional strain on already struggling local services.

Councillors said patients currently faced significant waits for GP appointments, there were no NHS dentists in the town, and a shortage of primary education places meant children had to walk from one end of town to the other to attend school.

Gladman won permission on appeal for the Monument View development when the former Taunton Deane Borough Council’s case against it collapsed after it accepted planning policies protecting open countryside around Wellington from unsuitable developments did not specify what types of development could be acceptable.

This time, Somerset Council has set out for Mr Major how its policies specifically state ‘general residential development’ will not be supported in open countryside.

The authority said while it did not specifically lay out what types of development would be resisted, it logically followed that residential would be one.

A spokesperson said: “If all development, including housing, were to be deemed acceptable in the open countryside unless expressly excluded by name, this would deprive the policy of its obvious purpose, and of all reasonable meaning.”